Question

    In the 1990s, when an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Belgium was cut down every year, Brazil was the world’s environmental villain (反派角色) and the Amazonian jungles the image of everything that was going wrong in green places. Now, the Amazon ought to be the image of what is going right. Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. If clearances had continued at their rate in 2005, an extra 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been put into the atmosphere. That is an amount equal to a year’s emissions from the European Union. Arguably, then, Brazil is now the world leader in addressing climate change.

But how did it break the vicious cycle (恶性循环)? The answer, according to a paper is that there was no silver bullet but instead a three-stage process in which bans, better governance in frontier areas and consumer pressure on companies worked.

The first stage ran from the mid-1990s to 2004. This was when the government put its efforts into bans and restrictions. The Brazilian Forest Code said that, on every farm in the Amazon, 80% of the land had to be set aside as a forest reserve. As the study observes, this share was so high that the code could not be followed --- or enforced. This was the period of the worst deforestation. Soybean prices were high and there were a vast expansion of soybean farming on the south-eastern border of the rainforest.

During the second stage, which ran from 2005 to 2009, the government tried to boost its ability to police the Amazon. Brazil’s president made stopping deforestation a priority, which resulted in better co-operation between different bits of the government. The area in which farming was banned was increased from a sixth to nearly half of the forest.

The third stage, which began in 2009, was a test of whether a system of restrictions could survive as soybean expansion continued. The government shifted its focus from farms to counties (each state has scores of these). Farmers in the 36 counties with the worst deforestation rates were banned from getting cheap credit until those rates fell.

By any standards, Brazil’s Amazon policy has been a success, made the more remarkable because it relied on restrictions rather than rewards, which might have been expected to have worked better. Over the period of the study, Brazil also turned itself into a farming superpower, so the country has shown it is possible to get a huge increase in food output without destroying the forest. Moreover, the policies so far have been successful among commercial farms who care about the law and respond to market pressures. Most remaining deforestation is by small holders who care rather less about these things, so the government faces the problem of persuading them to change their ways, too. Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.

1.Brazil is considered to play a leading role in dealing with climate change because ________.

A.it has rainforest as large as Belgium.

B.it has cut down too much rainforest.

C.it has taken action to reduce deforestation.

D.it sent 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

2.The underlined phrase “silver bullet” in Paragraph 2 most probably refers to _______.

A.a powerful weapon. B.an effective solution.

C.an intelligent device. D.a golden opportunity.

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.Brazil has successfully eliminated deforestation.

B.All the farmers care much about forest protection.

C.Small farm holders are a headache for the Brazilian government.

D.Both the food output and the forest in Brazil have greatly increased.

4.What can be the best title of the passage?

A.Cutting Down on Cutting Down. B.Brazil, the World Leader in Farming.

C.Restrictions Outperforming Rewards. D.Former Awareness Working Wonders.

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.A

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，介绍了巴西在减少热带雨林砍伐上取得的成就以及仍然存在的问题。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段内容，特别是 “Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. If clearances had continued at their rate in 2005, an extra 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide would have been put into the atmosphere. That is an amount equal to a year’s emissions from the European Union. Arguably, then, Brazil is now the world leader in addressing climate change.” 可知，以前巴西的热带雨林砍伐现象很严重，但政府数据显示在过去十年里，巴西亚马逊地区的森林砍伐减少了70%。如果2005的排放量继续保持下去，那么32亿吨二氧化碳将被排放到大气中。这相当于欧盟一年的排放量，可以说，巴西现在是应对气候变化的世界领导者，由此可知，巴西被认为在应对气候变化方面发挥着主导作用是因为巴西采取行动减少森林砍伐，故C项正确。

2.词义猜测题。根据画线词前的“But how did it break the vicious cycle (恶性循环)?”可知，如何打破恶性循环？与之对应的应该是解决方法，因此此处说的是没有灵丹妙药（有效的解决办法），由此可知画线词词义为“有效的解决办法”，故B项正确。

3.推理判断题。根据最后一段中的“Most remaining deforestation is by small holders who care rather less about these things, so the government faces the problem of persuading them to change their ways, too. Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.”可知，大部分剩余的森林砍伐都是由那些不太关心这些事情的小农场主造成的，因此政府也面临着说服他们改变方式的问题。森林砍伐已经减缓，但还没有停止，由此可知，还有少数农场主仍然是政府改善森林砍伐的头痛问题，故C项正确。

4.主旨大意题。通读全文，特别是根据第一段中的“Government figures show that deforestation fell by 70% in the Brazilian Amazon region during the past decade. ”及最后一段“Deforestation has been slowed, but not yet stopped.”可知，政府数据显示，在过去的十年里，巴西亚马逊地区的森林砍伐率下降了70%。森林砍伐已经减缓，但还没有停止。所以本文主要讲的是减少森林砍伐问题，所以短文的最佳标题是“减少砍伐”。故A项正确。